‘Oxymonster’ faces drug charges
MIAMI: By day, out in the open, Gal Vallerius was just a French guy so proud of his copious red facial hair that he competed in international beard and mustache competitions.
But on the murky, dark web, he was known as “OxyMonster” and sold drugs, payable in Bitcoin.
That, at least, is the account of prosecutors here, where Vallerius has been under arrest since last year.
He is accused of trafficking drugs including cocaine, crack, fentanyl, methamphetamine, LSD, Ritalin and oxycodone on Dream Market, a sort of e-Bay on the dark underbelly of the Internet.
Vallerius, 39, is reportedly expected to plead guilty tomorrow after reaching a plea deal that will spare him from life in prison.
He was arrested last August during a layover in Atlanta on his way to Austin, Texas to take part in the World Beard and Mustache Championships.
He was registered in the “full beard 30.145cm” category.
Law enforcement agencies had been monitoring Vallerius for months and were waiting when he and his wife Yasmin got off the plane from France.
Indeed, that long beard made it easy to pick him out among the crowd of arriving travellers.
“On his laptop was the TOR browser, apparent log-in credentials for Dream Market, US$500,000 (RM2 million) worth of Bitcoin, and a PGP encryption key entitled “OxyMonster” which matched that advertised as “OxyMonster’s” on Dream Market”, says the sworn statement of an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration .
His attorney, Anthony Natale, asked the court to strike the evidence obtained from the laptop, and from the Frenchman’s iPhone and iPad.
He argued that Vallerius was high when he arrived in Atlanta and agents asked to search his computer, so the search was not valid. But his motion was denied. In April, prosecutors added a new charge: money laundering.